You will need to sign on with your LLLID (La Leche League ID) before you can post. If you have never claimed your LLLID, create your LLLID now. To sign in, click the LLLID Sign On button in the upper right corner. Enter your LLLID Alias and click the button again.

Pre-Birth Nipple Issues

I was due last week and will be induced later this week if no progress. I noticed throughout my pregnancy that my nipples developed yellowish scab-like, cracked, crusts on them. My doctor suggested it may be dried colustrum, but I have tried to squeeze the breasts and nothing has come out of them. He suggested using lanolin which I have been doing. In the meantime, I am concerned that there is an infection or that something is wrong. Any suggestions/help ? I am extremely anxious and nervous about beginning the breastfeeding process and greatly appreciate any help/assistance.

Re: Pre-Birth Nipple Issues

Sounds like dried colostrum to me. If its not bothering you I would personally just leave it be. I've noticed the same thing this pregnancy despite being able to really express anything.

Married to my High School sweetheart 5-15-04

SAHM to: born 6/1/10 tongue and lip ties nursed 13 months with sore nipples and mutually agreed it was time to quit! born all natural 1/27/12 nursed for 16 months and lost interest 1/1/14 born all natural 11/4/14 nursing like a champ and growing like a weed!

Re: Pre-Birth Nipple Issues

I hope you have a nice full moon baby.

Just FYI, it's considered safe for a mom to wait to 42 weeks before taking the induction route. About 10% of normal, healthy pregnancies proceed to 42 weeks, and the average gestation length for a first-time mom is 41 weeks, 1 day. This link speaks to the issue: http://www.lamaze.org/Research/WhenR...3/Default.aspx. The following is particularly relevant: "Comment: A major conceptual problem with routine induction at 41 weeks is that the median length of pregnancy in healthy first-time mothers is 41 weeks 1 day. The conventional 40 weeks is just that: a convention. It is based on nothing more than a German obstetrician's fiat two centuries ago that since women cycle according to the moon, pregnancy lasts 10 moon months, that is, 10 months of 4 weeks each. Practitioners may argue over how great a deviation from normal warrants intervention, but in the case of routine induction at 41 weeks, they are arguing for intervening when there is no deviation from normal. The same study that reported a 41 week 1 day median pregnancy length in primiparous women found a 40 week 3 day average pregnancy length in women who had had babies before. First-time mothers are notoriously more likely to have problem labors and cesarean sections than multiparous women. This means that the increasing complication rates and cesarean rates seen with advancing gestational length may well be nothing more than an artifact created by having a higher and higher proportion of primiparous women in the mix as the days roll by after 40 weeks.
Practice philosophy aside, a policy of routine induction at 41 weeks produces more than a conceptual problem. Primiparous women have roughly double the risk of having an induced labor end in a c-section. A policy of routine induction at 41 weeks exposes large numbers of a vulnerable population to a greatly heightened risk of surgical delivery with all of the attendant problems of a major operation as well as all the future reproductive consequences of having a uterine scar."

I know that has nothing at all to do with the question you asked, but unnecessary induction of labor is my pet issue and I can't resist throwing the information out there.

Re: Pre-Birth Nipple Issues

I am extremely anxious and nervous about beginning the breastfeeding process and greatly appreciate any help/assistance

I have two suggestions. 1) Contact your local La Leche League Leader(s) just to introduce yourself and chat and (if there is time) attend a meeting.

2) Get a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (8th edition, 2010) and read the first four chapters if you have time, and just chapters 3 & 4 if you don't have time. Bring it with you to the hospital too.

3) Oh one more, sorry! remember that breastfeeding is the biologically normal way mothers feed their babies. You are made to nurse your baby and your baby is made to nurse. Look at you, your body is already making babies first milk! Just as baby is safe and secure inside you now, baby will feel most safe and secure on your body and in your arms after birth. You are all baby needs, but you may want/need support and trusted helpers.

Re: Pre-Birth Nipple Issues

Originally Posted by @llli*newtothis5

I was due last week and will be induced later this week if no progress. I noticed throughout my pregnancy that my nipples developed yellowish scab-like, cracked, crusts on them. My doctor suggested it may be dried colustrum, but I have tried to squeeze the breasts and nothing has come out of them. He suggested using lanolin which I have been doing. In the meantime, I am concerned that there is an infection or that something is wrong. Any suggestions/help ? I am extremely anxious and nervous about beginning the breastfeeding process and greatly appreciate any help/assistance.

Thanks so much!

I had the same! Yellowish crust... no visible leakage of colostrum... it was all fine and normal. Not an infection. Just the way the breasts are!

Lanolin is a great suggestion. I think my nipples were dry before I gave birth. I wish I had started lanolin before to soften them. Make sure you get the lanolin appropriate for breastfeeding (I find Lansinoh the best). Some pharmacies sell a cheaper version that's not pure enough for baby. You can apply lanolin after feeding baby, and after taking a shower, and leave it on, no need to wipe it before feedings. It's a good idea to use a breast pad so that the lanolin doesn't stain your bra and shirt (it seeped through my bra and ruined a couple of tops). I highly recommend reusable breast pads--there are many kinds, of bamboo, wool etc.

Oh, take the lanolin with you to the hospital, they don't always have it (or will have tiny samples only).